Resources for Dealing with Separation Anxiety?

First: Yay for the new Pet Forum!!! 

Second:  We have a 2 year old mutt who has some pretty consistent separation anxiety and we're not sure how to deal with it.  Pardon me for the long-winded background, but just so that I cover all my bases...

We got him when he was 7 weeks old.  Too soon, in my opinion, but the guy who owned the mother was sketchy, and he wanted the puppies out by 7 weeks.  We were worried that he would give our puppy to someone else if we waited the extra week.  Once we brought him home, we had a lady come to the house in the morning to take him for puppy daycare every day until he was about 7 months.  By then he was old enough to be able to be left alone for a few hours without needing to be taken outside so we stopped.

During this whole time, he had quickly gotten over being upset when we would leave in the morning (the lady would come about 30 minutes after we left).  I think the routine made him get used to it, and he was fine.  However, he would, and still does, get upset if we leave at any time of the day other than the morning.  He starts to fret when we he sees us put our coats or shoes on.  He'll howl once the door is closed.  We have to keep him in the crate because he will chew, but there's been evidence that he's bashed himself against it, so we hate the idea of keeping him in there because he might hurt himself.   I have also been unemployed, which hasn't helped matters because he gets used to someone being home.

Even now, he's fine in the morning when BF and kiddo leave to go to work/school, and I'm home.  But if it's a Saturday and BF and kiddo leave to go into town to pick up stuff for lunch, and I'm still home, he freaks out.

We've tried the leave-repeatedly-for-increasing-amounts-of-time thing for stretches but it hasn't seemed to have much effect.  Do we just keep doing it?  We've also tried putting our coats and shoes on and then just sit down to watch TV or make dinner, so that he doesn't automatically see it as a sign that we're leaving.  Hasn't helped!

He also gets nervous around shops because we tried training him to wait outside like other dogs when we go in to get something.  He completely freaks out.  Even if one person stands outside with him, he freaks out because another one has gone in.  If two of us go for a walk with him and then we separate, he freaks out that one person has gone one way when he and the other are going another way.

What do we do?  I've grown up having dogs, and they've always just "gotten it" after a few months.  I don't remember my parents doing anything in particular.  Just carrying on with life!

I just really want to get this under control it's not even so much that it's annoying as it is upsetting.  I would love to be able to let him lounge around the house when we leave, and I would love to be able to not have to worry about how anxious and upset he gets when we leave.  He's just so distressed sometimes, I hate to see him like that. 

Any advice, suggestions, or help would be greatly appreciated. 

Normally separation anxiety stems from the dog thinking that they are the pack leader. You can look up attributes that pack leader dogs usually exhibit such as walking in front of you on a leash, being extremely excitable when seeing dogs etc. to see if your dog thinks he's in charge. And then you have to break the habits.

Normally at 2 yrs old your dog should be out of the chewing stage so it sounds like he is just acting out. We have a dog with separation anxiety and we were told to use a kong or hide or treats around the house so when we leave he associates it with good things. Also, they said that if you lave a radio on outside the room they are in along with an old sweater by the door it's comforting and they don't think you are that far away.

It sounds like you need to do some training and show the dog who's boss. I'm no good at that, I always just baby dogs lol

We went through  this and a colleague of mine just went through this with her dog (1 year) - the chewing, the throwing herself against her crate, everything. 

In both instances: Crate.  it works and is the safest place when the dog is alone.  My colleague had a horrible time but she stuck with it and now 6 months into it, her dog automatically goes in her crate when it's time for her to leave for work.  She now just gives the dog a treat and leaves. 

We always gave our dog a treat - either a stuffed kong or a stuff ball or later a greenie (doggy crack) but something really special that he only got when we left for work.  We also never made a fuss when we left the house; just a quick bye and shut the door.  Pretty soon, Rufus was focusing on getting his treat and not that we were leaving.  We stopped crating him when we could close rooms off - if we couldn't have closed rooms off, then he would have stayed crated while we were at work.   Now he could care less and he just sleeps all day, and yes, I'm sure on the furniture...

Thanks guys!  Yeah, we do the whole kong toy/treats thing in his crate. We also leave the radio on (an old trick my dad uses).  He's gotten a bit better within the past week actually.

Since I'm not working and am home most days, I've been very diligent in making sure there is time set aside in the day where he is put in his crate with the kitchen door shut.  He tends to follow people around the house, which I think reinforces this notion that he should be coming with us everywhere to see what we're doing.

Sometimes he thinks I've left the house entirely, so he'll cry a bit, but he seems to be settling down much more quickly.  Hopefully this is the way forward.

That said, Mrs Pink, I think you're right and he will probably end up being a crate dog.  If we owned this house, I would work toward being able to leave him out of the crate like my dogs when I was growing up, but we just can't take that risk.  He's really not a big chewer and he learned early on to stick to his toys, but if he's in any kind of distressed state and alone who knows what he'll decide to chew on.  When we were trying to leave him out, he'd go for the post, toilet paper, or shoes despite having all his toys around him. 

He likes his crate anyway, and usually plops himself down in there while we're eating dinner, so it's certainly a safe, happy place for him, so I think we'll just carry on with that for now.

Fingers crossed we keep getting better!